Samsung still makes great ones. Some of them are even compatible with Wacom pens.

Once I helped to set up a Lenovo Android tablet, that too was stellar compared to the cheap junk you can meet with easily.

Samsung’s are generally regarded as pretty good. There’s also that OnePlus tablet that MKBHD liked because it has features similar to iPads

samsung s series is top tier

dare i say better than the ipad

I picked up a xiaomi Redmi Pad earlier this year. Seems pretty decent. Runs games like Nikke pretty well.

A used samsung, or Xiaomi pad. Xiaomi pad if you want battery life especially.

The Alldocube iPlay 50 Pro is the best tablet I could find for under $250CAD with 8GB ram, 128GB storage, microSD, and a good processor.

Edit: For software updates to the latest Android version, you can install LineageOS or any other GSI ROM.

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I don’t know about tablets, but if you want to go big on general purpose android smartphone:

Samsung flagships for the best hardware and Google flagships for the best software.

I assume the same rule might still hold for android tablets.